Cold Breath
by Lachy The Nerd
Summary: Left in the shambles of an apocalypse and forgotten by everyone, Chernarus remains quarantined to this day, Russian and Takistan patrol guards shoot anyone and everyone on sight. With the civil war in Altis and Stratis raging on the world seeks to have coverage, Dimitri Gorbachyov will be filming the battle, or would've if not for the unknown horrors that lurk in the quarantine.
1. Prologue

A dark and extremely blurry vision had stricken me, shards of smoking remains scatter the hardened surface. I look into the distance, a figure staggering towards me at a slow pace, my hand dangled in front of me as I attempted to get the figure's attention. Conscious began to elude me and I had little time left, but as hard as I shook my hand the figure ignored me and turned to stagger off. A black abyss began to build up at the sides of my eyes creeping to the centre of my eyes, eventually blinding me as I drifted into the endless void.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Lost and Damned

"Hey, Gorbachyev, wake up" a thick masculine voice commands.

My drooped head that rested across the seatbelt strapped across me began to wriggle, my eyes slowly opening to see a man strapped into his seat like myself wearing a navy blue vest and a helmet rested beside him that in big bold letters read AAN.

I am Dimitri Gorbachyev, I was born in Moscow in 2009. I had a pretty relaxed upbringing for the most part, I worked as a waiter for a bit when I was 18 and then I was laid off so I became a cameraman for Russia's AAN News. Turns out you get raises if you go to the battlefield so I was eager to fly to Altis where some civil war was tearing the country apart as NATO tried to break things up, I didn't look too much into the details, I thought while I was there there would be quite a lot of questions and answers. I had stepped into a helicopter with the reporter, Igor Vetrov, at the Moscow International Airport and we began the long flight to Altis, apparently our pilot wasn't the best with routes and had told us we were taking a detour right overhead some land I've actually never looked into.

To my front was Igor, looking upon me wanting to make conversation.

"Huh, yeah?" I reply, in my sleepy state.

"You hanging in there? I hear this is your first time on the battlefield?" He asks.

"Uh, yeah, I'm fine" I shrug him off.

"I haven't seen you before, you new?"

"Two months"

"Ah, I see" he begins to shuffle in his seat as turbulence starts to strike the helicopter. "You'd think flying would've gotten better by now"

"He's just a newbie, I'm sure he's just a bit nervous" I defend the pilot.

Some fiddling with the speaker on the wall is heard, grabbing our attention. "Um, we seem to be hitting some slight turbulence" the pilot informs us.

I look back towards Igor to see him tapping out a beat on the metal bar of his seat. "So, how old are you?" Igor asks.

"21" I reply.

"You look about 18, let's hope you stay that way and don't wrinkle like me" he snickers.

"Ugh, yeah" I roll my shoulders, letting the prolonged silence become slightly more awkward.

Suddenly the helicopter jolts and the helmet flies off its seat and smacks against the floor causing a loud TING.

"What the!?" Igor exclaims.

The intercom comes on "We seem to be…oh my-"

_BOOM!_

The intercom turns to static and a repeating alarm continues to go off.

"Hold on Dimitri!" Igor screams.

"I'm holding on!" I reply.

Suddenly Igor jumps from his seat as the helicopter spins and swirls around like a Frisbee. Igor stumbles to the door between here and the cockpit as my knuckles go white from gripping the seat so firmly.

"Come on" Igor grits his teeth as he bangs his shoulder into the door.

Another push and the door swings open, Igor is shocked and looks out the door. "Crap!" He screams as his body flies out the helicopter, I peak through the door from where I'm seating and see the entire cockpit had been ripped off by the explosion. I then see the ground from the door and brace for impact.

"Mother of all that is holy, don't let me-"

_BAM!_

A dark and extremely blurry vision had stricken me, shards of smoking remains scatter the hardened surface. I look into the distance, a figure staggering towards me at a slow pace, my hand dangled in front of me as I attempted to get the figure's attention. Conscious began to elude me and I had little time left, but as hard as I shook my hand the figure ignored me and turned to stagger off. A black abyss began to build up at the sides of my eyes creeping to the centre of my eyes, eventually blinding me as I drifted into the endless void.

My eyes open, a blinding white greets me, I raise my hand to the front of me to darkness the rays of light and in a second or over the light begins to darken as I see a grey sky behind shards of metal that stick out and crumble in front of me. As much as my head hurts I manage to recollect what had happened prior, I had crashed.

I hear the crunching of dirt, approaching so I drop my hand and freeze in fear, either in fear or from the temperature. I begin to hear mumbling that soon becomes audible to my ears.

"…so there we all are, gun to gun, eye to eye, when suddenly a window shatters. Grigory turns to see and Kirill shoots him straight through the head. The shot immediately begins to make the new guests more aggravated and he begins popping off shots in the intruding horde while I sneak off with the loot, let's just say Kirill won't be dead for long" one of the men tells the others.

"Awesome – hold on, look, over there" another, more lightly voiced one exclaims.

"Over where, I don't see nothing Luka"

"There, the helo that smashed into the road" damn it, they're going to come over.

"Well Luka, it seems you aren't as blind as they say you are"

As they approach I give into my curiosity and slowly turn my head so not to startle them, I see the men. They both wear rags and scrap clothing to survive the snow's embrace that had taken over the city, one is equipped with an extremely aged automatic rifle in his grasps while the other holds a rusted revolver.

"Well, go on then, get digging" the man tells Luka.

Luka, equipped with the revolver, begins to scan the wreckage when his eyes stop and stare…directly at me.

"Hey, Mikhail, there is a body here. He still looks pretty well dressed except for some mess from the wreck. In fact it looks recent" Luka announces.

"Well, the trigger happy border patrol will shoot anything that moves, I'm just more surprised that anyone with half a brain cell left would fly over Chernarus" Mikhail judges.

"Well, he might still have some stuff on him"

"As long as you don't go all Hannibal Lecter then it's fine with me"

Luka then places down his revolver on the ground to free up his hand and he grips onto the metal and begins to tear some sharp scrap metal out of his way. After some pulling and yanking he has freed up some space. So immediately after chucking the last piece he my arms and begins to pull my body out of the wreckage. I had to think fast, couldn't risk them knowing I was alive nor could I risk them taking my stuff.

Using my harsh judgement skills I immediately yank out my hand, startling Luka to letting me go. I grip the revolver that was left on the concrete and flick out my hand. Not taking any risks, I shoot first and ask questions later, I fire off a round that pierces Luka in the shoulder. I stand up and see Mikhail turning around to fire his automatic rifle. I immediately fire off another round getting a lucky shot and shooting Mikhail straight through the head.

I take deep breaths with the revolver still in my sweaty grip and then I look down to see Luka gripping his wound.

"What the – how are you?" Luka asks, not knowing how to do anything in his excruciatingly painful state.

I look at him and I decide to end this. I point the revolver down and fire a third round straight through Luka's skull to finish him off.

I now stood there, I was only meant to be filming some guy running around a crappy country, now I found myself with two people's blood on my hands with so many unanswered questions. Then I heard a moan, then another, then another, moans and gargles were coming from everywhere. Then a man stumbled out of an alleyway and his head rose, his lifeless eyes staring into mine, blood drips down off his chin as his ripped and torn at jacket revealed ribs tearing through his weak, colourless, skin.

"S-s-stay back" I insist, pointing the gun towards him.

The man began to run his elbows back and then straightened out his arms, his hands stretched out behind his back and his hunched over body ready to charge at me. Then a piercing scream emitted and echoed through town, immediately after that it gave charge and I fired. The bullet pierced straight through his leg and he tumbled to the ground. Thinking it was over I lowered the gun, only to see his hand plant it to the ground as he pulled his body from the snow covered road. He then let out a blood curdling moan and began to strike his hands forward and crawled closer to me as his leg ripped from the friction. I brought the revolver back up, I look in the chamber and noticed this was my last round and I shot, the bullet whizzed across and pierced the man through the head finally killing him.

Knowing it was over now I slowly turned when I notice 4 men like the one prior stumbling towards me, I had to get out of here. They let out screams of terror and I quickly turned and ran as they gave chase through the suburban area. I ran and ran gaining more pursuers as I continued through the city, I then saw an opening. Where the buildings finally ended and a black forested loomed at me, the perfect place to lose this pursuing army. I kept running and running until I had made it into the forest.

I jolted through the clustered forest, constantly turning to check for pursuers and leaping over branches and roots in the ground. As I tired I knew I had lost them. I walked, kicking up the leaves as I panted and breathed. I finally sat down and leaned up against a tree knowing my enemy had finally lost me. Suddenly I heard a crackle and my head shot up to see a figure with a mask draped over their face, a cricket bat in hand.

"What the-" I said before the figure had slammed the butt of the cricket bat into my head causing me to fall into the leaves and lose consciousness.


End file.
